Sonoma Mountain Village

Green urban development, in just 12 years! 8

If you can ignore the egregious lede -- did green building really come from hippies? -- there's much to celebrate in this article on Sonoma Mountain Village, "a community of about 2,000 homes and businesses, centered around a town square, using the latest principles of sustainability, green technology and new urbanism."

It'll be about 175 acres, done in about 12 years, and muy verde:

To make the plan work, Codding [Enterprises] spent $7.5 million to create the largest privately owned solar power installation in Northern California -- 90,000 square feet of solar panels capable of generating 1.14 megawatts to power 1,000 homes. Central heating and cooling will be provided by a converted power plant left behind by Agilent, using a four-pipe, fan coil system popular with luxury hotels. Modifications to the system are expected to make it carbon neutral within five years.

Homes will be placed on the site to take advantage of passive cooling created by prevailing northwest winds. Another idea is to build a network of cisterns to collect rainwater, which will be used to flush toilets.

It also sounds pleasant:

To make it easy, 80 percent of the homes will be located within a 5-minute walk of the town center, where residents can buy groceries, get a haircut or lounge with a latte. About 700,000 square feet of commercial/retail space is being planned for the town square and outer retail strip. The homes -- ranging from 500-square-foot condominiums to 3,500-square-foot single-family residences -- will be within a 10-minute walk of the train station, so getting around by car will be an option rather than a necessity.

The community will include parks, an international-size soccer field, a fitness center, basketball courts and other amenities.

Because studies have shown that narrow streets are safer for pedestrians, the plan is to have them, along with row houses, with stoops in front and garages in back, to make walking more appealing. Small parks are to be located every four or five blocks. Codding plans to use multiple architects and builders "so it doesn't have a cookie-cutter feel."

"It's about being healthier," Syphers said. "It's about walking more places, about lowering expenses so that you don't have to work so hard, and it's about feeling connected to a community that is doing something positive."

And smart:

"So we've really done a 180-degree change in our business," says [Codding CEO Brad] Baker. "We're trying to lead the way. We think it's extremely do-able. We expect it to be a mega-trend in future development."

Baker also expects sustainable development to be profitable. The $7.5 million solar installation is expected to recoup its costs in 12 years, with an 18 percent profit. Costs for the cisterns of rainwater will be ameliorated by not having to lay pipes for a storm drainage system.

My one complaint is, I don't hear anything about low-income housing. That's part of sustainability too.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. Tom Philpott's avatar

    Tom Philpott Posted 9:12 am
    26 Mar 2007

    Where's the farm?I'll be happy when projects like this one start dedicating some acres to a CSA farm, with a farm manager supported by resident fees in exchange for produce.

    Victual Reality

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  2. David Roberts's avatar

    David Roberts Posted 9:22 am
    26 Mar 2007

    Great pointWhy don't you contact them? It sounds like things are still in the planning stages.

    www.grist.org

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  3. Laurence Aurbach Posted 10:04 am
    26 Mar 2007

    test pilotSonoma Mountain Village is being designed by Fisher and Hall Urban Design using a customized version of the SmartCode for zoning. The project will be a test case for the LEED-ND pilot program and the designers aim to achieve a top score from the US Green Building Council.

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  4. GreenEngineer Posted 10:12 am
    26 Mar 2007

    farmsI actually know the site in question.  It's a pretty heavily developed brownfield site, with infrastructure in place: not an efficient piece of land to revert to agriculture.  However, there's lots of disused ag-land all around (though it's rapidly in the process of conversion).  The down side is, it's real hard to make even a passable economic case for growing anything in this region but wine grapes.  Tom's idea is a good one, but it would require some real creative thinking to arrange.

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  5. Dawn Pillsbury Posted 5:07 am
    27 Mar 2007

    Suburban farms and Rohner Park homeownersThere was actually a proposal to start a small, organic farm not far from that site about four years ago. The neighbors opposed it because they were concerned about impacts from operations and the potential for migrant laborers (there weren't any current plans to hire them, but you never know, especially if you're a Rohner Park homeowner).
    The previous plan for this site was a biodiesel plant. The neighbors opposed that because they were concerned about the inevietable horrid smell (and refused to attend a demonstration that, of course, would have showed that it smells less than a typical Chinese restaurant). I bet they'll be wishing they had allowed it when they can't fuel up their FUVs without selling the kids.

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  6. Planner Posted 6:52 am
    28 Mar 2007

    So where do the workers live?I'll echo the thought of where the workers of the small retail establishments live. Is this going to be a sustainable community where your service sector needs to DRIVE from location X to get to the destination? I see a pretty big disconnect in this issue. Sustainability is not only for the wealthy. If we're going to make a sustainable community work, we need to make it work on ALL income levels, and most importantly, on the lower income levels.

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  7. cecilia4747 Posted 4:54 am
    26 Feb 2008

    Need To Make It Work on ALL Income Levels....I work in the same area where this new green development will be built, and recently found out that Sonoma Mountain Village was already planning on including a higher percentage of low-income housing than is currently required by law for new developments in Sonoma County.
    This is great news for the service sector residents you mentioned and will enable them to live and work in the same green community while helping them reduce their monthly transportation expenses. A big plus for low income families.

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  8. PattiUber Posted 11:13 am
    07 May 2008

    Affordable Housing IncludedJust attended the Sustainable Enterprise Conference at Sonoma Mountain Village and learned about their plans to include plenty of rental housing, low-income units, apartments and condos.  Seems like they're covering their sustainability bases.
    I'm been watching this community for a while, and I just found this article in the Washington Post:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008 ...

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